1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computers and software, and more particularly, to a scan system and method providing users the ability to quickly and efficiently transfer images from a scanner to an online web page.
2. Description of Related Art
As known in the art, the Internet is a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers consisting of thousands of commercial, government, educational and other computer systems that route data and messages.
World Wide Web (WWW) refers to the total set of interlinked hypertext documents residing on hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) servers all around the world. Documents on the WWW, called pages or web pages, are written in hypertext mark-up language (HTML) identified by uniform resource locators (URL) that specify the particular machine and pathname by which a file can be accessed and transmitted from node to node to the end user under HTTP. A web site is a related group of these documents and associated files, scripts, subprocedures, and databases that are provided by an HTTP server on the WWW.
Users need a browser program and an Internet connection to access a web site. Browser programs, also called xe2x80x9cweb browsers,xe2x80x9d are client applications that enable a user to navigate the Internet and view HTML documents on the WWW, another network, or the user""s computer. Web browsers also allow users to follow codes called xe2x80x9ctagsxe2x80x9d embedded in an HTML document, which associate particular words and images in the document with URLs so that a user can access another file that may be half way around the world, at the press of a key or the click of a mouse.
These files may contain text (in a variety of fonts and styles), graphic images, movie files, and sounds as well as java applets, perl applications, other scripted languages, active X-controls, or other small embedded software programs that execute when the user activates them by clicking on a link.
A key difficulty with posting image documents to a server on the WVWW is that of simplicity for novice user. How does a novice user construct their own web page of images? Typically, the prior solution for providing web page construction of images requires the user to: (1) scan the images to disk; (2) write an HTML page to display each image; (3) write an HTML catalog to link the image files together; (4) generate small thumbnail images from full-size images; (5) insert the thumbnail image into the HTML catalog file; (6) upload the entire collection of images and HTML file to a server associated with an internet service provider (I. S. P.); and (7) start the browser to go to the proper URL for the image web site. Needless to say, each of the previous steps is a complicated and time-consuming task for even the most experienced scanner owner.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.
The present invention is generally directed to a system and method for scanning images to a web site.
Briefly described, in architecture, the scan system can be implemented as follows. A scanner is provided for scanning an image in order to generate a scanned image. A transferring mechanism takes the scanned image generated by the scanner, and transfers the scanned image to a web device for storage. The web device is located on and accessed by a network. The web device manages and stores scanned images.
The present invention can also be viewed as providing a method for scanning images directly to a web site. In this regard, the method can be broadly summarized by the following steps: (1) scanning an image using a scanner; (2) determining a location on a network to transfer the image; (3) connecting the scanner to the network; and (4) transmitting the image to the location on the network.
The system and method for scanning images directly to a web site enables a scanner to transfer images directly to a web site without the use of a computer. The system and method for scanning images directly to a web site is also a user friendly and efficient method for quickly and efficiently creating an image web site.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional features and advantages be included herein within the scope of the present invention.